Blog description.

Accentuating the Liberal in Classical Liberal: Advocating Ascendency of the Individual & a Politick & Literature to Fight the Rise & Rise of the Tax Surveillance State. 'Illigitum non carborundum'.

Liberty and freedom are two proud words that have been executed from the political lexicon: they were frog marched and stood before a wall of blank minds, then forcibly blindfolded, and shot, with the whimpering staccato of ‘equality’ and ‘fairness’ resounding over and over. And not only did this atrocity go unreported by journalists in the mainstream media, they were in the firing squad.

The premise of this blog is simple: the Soviets thought they had equality, and welfare from cradle to grave, until the illusory free lunch of redistribution took its inevitable course, and cost them everything they had. First to go was their privacy, after that their freedom, then on being ground down to an equality of poverty only, for many of them their lives as they tried to escape a life behind the Iron Curtain. In the state-enforced common good, was found only slavery to the prison of each other's mind; instead of the caring state, they had imposed the surveillance state to keep them in line. So why are we accumulating a national debt to build the slave state again in the West? Where is the contrarian, uncomfortable literature to put the state experiment finally to rest?

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Tuesday, January 22, 2013

United Police States of America – FATCA Again and Obama’s Inauguration DoubleSpeech.

Peter
Cresswell sums up well the brazen philosophical contortions in Obama’s inauguration doublespeech
this morning, but unfortunately the larceny at the heart of that statist
mobocracy, and that man, goes way beyond words into actions, and can
be seen even within our tiny shores, given the US is one of the only countries
in the world that taxes its citizens no
matter where they live, under a citizenship based tax that is the definition of
extortion, and to the extent many Americans are wisely handing their passports and citizenship back, (though they’re even stung with an expatriation
tax to do that). Per (paid – well worth a subscription) content on NBR:

The United States Treasury has
finalised regulations to implement the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act,
designed to catch US tax cheats.

FATCA is one of the largest pieces of
extra-territorial tax law to date, requiring all large global financial
institutions to identify from within their
accounts US taxpayers ...

New
Zealand banks, insurers and fund managers will be required to hand over details
about [ALL – that’s every single damned one of] their US clients and owners to the US Internal Revenue Service and US
Treasury from January 2014.

If they do not, the banks could have
30% of income and sales proceeds from US assets withheld by the US government.

If
you use the New Zealand banking system, don’t think this wanton destruction of
the privacy and unjustifiable looting of every US citizen doesn’t affect you:
the banks, worldwide, have estimated the systems they need to comply with this
are going to cost $100 million, and the IRS via the US government isn’t paying
for that; as far as I know, we are. So where are our politicians standing up to
what is becoming the world’s biggest slave state and bully, to tell them this
is ‘unfair’ on the New Zealand banking system and the New Zealand bank user,
so bugger off please?

Answer:
nowhere, because our politicians give IRD every power they request to take your money also. Under the profligate statism that rules the West, having swept aside, utterly,
the civilising individualistic ethos of classical liberalism on which the free
West was once built, immorality rules.

Regarding
the United Police States of America, it appears the Land of the Free is now the
land where its citizens are the most hunted by its government over any other
Western land, and Obama citing the Founding Fathers, using that wonderful word, liberty, when he has no idea what it means, in an inauguration doublespeech
proposing a quickening to his brand of rampant statism and the final complete
philosophical murdering of the individual, makes the doublespeak in Orwell’s
novel of the police state, 1984, look tame, because that was only fictional,
whereas Obama has made it real, and it’s a shocker that I’ll even be paying for
it here in New Zealand, through my bank fees.

The
Free West is gone, and worse, there can be no Western Spring arising from the
uncritical mindlessness brainwashed into our school children, who have fallen
so far they confuse individualism with a selfishness that must be struck down
by untrammelled state redistribution. Truly, the questioning by free men of
every edict and every authority that is known to us from history as the Enlightenment, which raised
man up by his reason and threw off the shackles of tyrants, is destroyed in every classroom,
every day, meaning revolution is quelled, for good … my next post, when I get time (I’m
busy!) will be on that founding document of New Zealand statism, the New Zealand
School Curriculum document, and thus why we need charter schools.

Mark, Thank you for taking an interest in this matter. There appears to be no serious media coverage of this to date. It is bad enough that all New Zealand taxpayers are being expected to pick up the tab for this outrage, but are you also aware that many New Zealand citizens will also have their data handed over to the IRS?

The US decides who is a "taxable person". This includes anyone with a US parent (even if they have never set foot in the US), anyone born in the US (even if they left 1 week after birth) and former green card holders who did not formally return their green card when they left.

Once people discover they are a "US Person" the real nightmare begins, which is the discovery of the multitude of unintelligible forms and asset disclosures that they should have been making, but were unaware of. There is no way to come into compliance without incurring massive professional fees and the threat of life altering penalties from the IRS, who discourage so-called "quiet disclosure".

Worse, they don't even let you renounce US citizenship without certifying 5 years of US tax compliance under penalties of perjury. Effectively, they are keeping people hostages under threat of extortion.

There are somewhere around 40-50,000 "US persons" in New Zealand who will be affected by this, many of them New Zealand citizens who have no idea of the bus they are about to be thrown under by the NZ government.

Finally, should NZ agree to collect the draconian fines and penalties, they will be enforcing an act of extortion on their own people under the threat of an oppressive foreign power.

Sadly, any "US persons" caught in this trap are scared and unable to reveal their identity or make public submissions for fear of having their lives destroyed by the IRS and any complicit governments.

How did we get here?

The real facts on this issue are at the following link, which has a Canadian bias but is absolutely relevant for New Zealand:

It is one thing to be scared of your own tax revenue authority, but quite another to have a foreign government threatening you with financial destruction or jail for failing to reveal (for example) your business bank accounts and accused of being a "tax cheat" and a criminal.

The IRS has become a hideous, terrifying monster, threatening extortion against anyone it can self designate a "US person" on the planet. In order to enforce their immorality they have now enlisted the help of foreign governments, including ours, to sign Inter Governmental Agreements (IGAs), so that financial institutions can avoid breaking their own domestic Privacy and Civil Rights Laws.

There has been a stony silence lately from our Treasury, although I expect announcements of some sort soon. They are probably still talking to their lawyers (at NZ Taxpayer expense) on how they are going to breach the Human Rights Act 1993 which prevents discrimination based on national origin (Citizenship).

No doubt they will put a good spin on the installation of the IRS as the final authority on NZ reporting under the guise of catching "tax cheats".

I could go on ..... meanwhile, I need to figure out how to protect my family as I sure as hell don't trust my own government to do so.

Just discovered your blog, and note the date on this FATCA issue was back in January but saw a recent comment, so thought I might add one.

There continues to be good updates on what is happening on FATCA front on Isaac Brock as @annonymous said. It would be a good resource for you to follow what the Canadians are doing and thinking about resistance to FATCA and the IGA (intergovernment agreement process)

Maybe model it for the Kiwis, or join in there with comments, views and insights? I do fear that NZ has become passive sheep to the FATCA slaughter, and there is NO media coverage of FATCA at all.

There is now a lot on FATCA to absorb, but you might start with the archives and see if any of the titles grab your interest.

http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/blog-archive/

Also read the "About" ..

http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/2011/12/14/about-the-isaac-brock-society/

Here is a recent push back story that might slow FATCA up a bit, if successful. The US Treasury is trying to circumvent Congress and impose a domestic FATCA on US financial Institutions (USFIs) so they too can share the cost and pain they are forcing on Kiwi institutions (FFIs) with government capitulation to the extra territorial nature of FATCA by signing IGAs.

This is all about the IGA reciprocity charade. There is really none in the FATCA IGA, and Treasury is desperate to give the NZ IRD something even if it is just a vague promise to advocate for it with Congress.

The answer to your question is, generally, no. NZ's Green Party is contradictory at policy level, with the only unifying belief being Big Government to run everything, so no NZ Green will ever find themselves against the powers of the taxing authorites, when their every policy relies on a huge tax-take.

As it happens I've been reading the Isaac Brooke site; so long as they don't mind me quoting some of their about page, I'm going to plug their blog on a new post soon, as we share many themes in common.

@ Mark HubbardI tried to comment on your blog but it got lost. I’ll just paste it here in case you’re still around …

This Canadian is happy to have discovered your blog, Mark. (Thanks, Just Me.) I’m loving the loon in you (no disrespect, people — see Mark’s disclaimer at the bottom of the page). I have a real soft spot for Kiwis and would like to think they are part of the anti-FATCA forces being cobbled together in Canada and in other countries. — Em

MarK: Just Me pointed me to your blog. Not only is United States of Arrogance trying to tax citizens, no matter where they live. They are also trying to reclaim those (like myself and others) who were told by US Consulate three, four or even five decades ago they were "permanently and irrevocably" relinquishing US citizenshiop.

People interested in standing up to IRS (International Robbery Society) and FATCA (Foreign Attack To Control All) may also want to check our Maple Sandbox (maplesandbox.ca) We tend to be Canadian-centric because most of our participants are Canadian, but we welcome folks from other countries.

Hi Mark - I think Blaze's remark refers to the fact that some US legislation was introduced circa 1995 that defined new rules for determining when a renunciant lost US citizenship for tax purposes. They have chopped and changed these rules at various intervals since then. At one point, between 2004 and 2008, even after formally renouncing, the IRS considered you a citizen "for tax purposes" until you filed paperwork with them, even years later.

No one can escape their net without a great deal of hassle and threats of exit taxes, penalties and even imprisonment for not filing the correct paperwork. These barriers to expatriation are almost certainly in breach of Human Rights, not that they care about that.

This nonsense applies to folks that have never set foot in the US (if they have a US parent), or in some cases, did not even know that they were a US citizen.

"The agreement will be reciprocal, with the result that the US will also supply information about New Zealand investments in the US"

Even the IRS admit that reciprocity is only a token gesture. And in any case, what value would the information be to New Zealand, which taxes based on residency and is largely uninterested in New Zealanders living in the US.

"FATCA is part of New Zealand’s commitment as a good global citizen to doing its bit to clamp down on tax evasion"

Dunne is drinking the kool aid put forward by the US government. How many "US persons" are hiding assets in New Zealand for purposes of tax evasion? Hardly any, compared with the number of NZ Citizens classified as "US Persons" who will have their data turned over to the IRS for processing.

Questions for Mr Dunne:

How will you circumvent the Human Rights Act 1993 which prevents discrimination based on Nationality (Citizenship)?

How can you guarantee the privacy and use of the data on New Zealand citizens that you plan to hand over to the IRS? Names, addresses, bank account numbers and balances? Once it has left the country you will have no control over it.

Civilisation is a movement toward privacy, an Orwellian surveillance state the opposite, and tax legislation, especially tax administration, has become the legislation and administration of surveillance and authoritarian rule, in contravention of the rule of law, and common decency. IR

If the Founding Fathers could see how freedom is bound, again, under the iron fist of our taxing authorities; New Zealand's IRD, America's IRS, UK's HMRC, a secret police operating in every country, there would be a Western Spring.

This blog is the only form my protest can take, hoping not to become a squashed blug on the windscreen of state.

Disclaimer: If you pay anything other than the correct amount of tax - as hard as that can be to calculate under our mess of tax law - then you're a bloody idiot. The IR's are all-powerful: they are not a construct of a free, voluntary, civilised classical liberalism, they are a relic of totalitarianism. You have no liberty or privacy from the IR's, you have no legal defence against them, you cannot refuse to be interrogated, you cannot question their actions or seek judicial review holding them to account, even the burden of proof has been turned against the taxpayer; before the law, though you have done nothing wrong, you have less rights than a murderer or rapist, and this Department has been charged by the Fortress of Legislation to systematically eavesdrop and investigate all of us. Don't mess with them. And let me put on record, the IRD staffers I deal with daily are ‘good’ people, I have no complaint whatsoever on a personal/personable level; but this blog is about the principles involved, and it remains my hope there is enough of a classical liberal ethic left, admitting debate and ' difference', that this blog is taken only for the contained - to these pages - protest that it is. For let me spell it out - you, Big Brother State, have won: I.Am.Scared.Of.You.You bet I am. But there's this loon in me that can't seem to shut up. (You're lucky, my poor wife has to live with it).

Copyright

All posts copyright Mark Hubbard and Life Behind the IRon Drape. Contents may be reproduced without permission provided credit is given to the author, it is not altered in any way, the context is made clear and a link is provided to the original.